This invention relates to outdoor lighting displays and more particularly to an improvement for stakes used to support lighting fixture for such displays.
U.S. Pat. No. DES. 282,104 and copending design patent application Ser. No. 07/543,731 pending which are owned by the same assignee as the current application, is directed to a stake for supporting an outdoor lighting fixture such as a Christmas light. While the patent references Christmas lights, in actuality, the stake can be used throughout the year for supporting outdoor lighting fixtures. Thus, in addition to its use in creating lighting effects during Christmas time, it can also be used to illuminate patios in the summertime, or walkways and driveways the year round. The stake shown in design patent DES. 282,104 is particularly for use with a large type lighting fixture having a bulb and bulb holder and supports a bulb 8"-12" above the ground. The bulb holder includes an L-shaped bracket having a leg sized to fit in a rectangular opening in the upper face of the light support portion of the stake. Typically, such bulbs are strung together with the wiring for the bulbs entering the base of the socket into which a bulb is screwed. Because each fixture in the string has a bracket fitting in the support portion of the stake, the fixtures are adequately supported as is the wiring running between fixtures.
There are other types of light fixtures used for outdoor lighting which do not include the bracket referred to above. The bulbs used in these fixtures tend to be smaller than those used shown in the Des. 282,104 patent and usually have no bracket at all. Such a string of the fixtures may simply consist of a series of light sockets joined together by wiring running between the base of the sockets. Two problems are therefore presented: first, how to support the light fixture on the stake; and second, how to support the wiring. One way would be simply to wrap the wiring around the side of the fixture and let the bulb dangle. Or, the bulb could be taped to the side of the stake. While either approach would serve to attach a light fixture to a stake, neither is aesthetically pleasing.